ADDITIONAL NOTES:renewed through the 2017-18 season (the show's seventh of 16 episodes) on 10/16/16

DESCRIPTION:(from AMC's press release, October 2016) Days before its highly anticipated Season 7 Premiere, The Walking Dead has been renewed for an eighth season. Season 8 will premiere in late-2017 and will kick off with the 100th episode of the series. "Eeny, meeny, miny, more," said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. "What a joy to partner with Robert Kirkman, Scott M. Gimple and some of the hardest-working people in television to bring The Walking Dead to the fans. And, most important, thanks to those fans for breathing life into this remarkable series right along with us." With this renewal also comes 16 episodes of Talking Dead, the live after-show hosted by Chris Hardwick, which is the highest-rated talk show on television and the No. 2 show on cable, behind The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead returns Sunday, October 23 at 9/8c, followed by an expanded 90-minute episode of Talking Dead live from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, featuring Hardwick, the cast members in Negan's line-up, and Lucille.